Sinead Outs Self

Pop star Sinead O'Connor, 33, outs herself in the upcoming issue of the lesbian magazine Curve. "I'm a lesbian," she says in an interview, excerpts of which were released on Thursday. "I haven't been very open about that, and throughout most of my life I've gone out with blokes because I haven't necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a lesbian. But I actually am a lesbian." Friday morning, O'Connor spoke to Howard Stern on his radio show and assured the shock jock that, contrary to his preconceptions, she does not hate men. "I adore men, and I think men get a rougher deal in this world than women do, because men are not allowed to express themselves in the world the way women can." With her remarks, the Irish singer and mother of two, who last year was ordained as a priest by the leader of a quasi-Catholic religious sect in her native Ireland, joins such other out female recording stars as Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang and members of the duo Indigo Girls.